Experiences of teachers and students with pair work

Providing qualitative and effective classes represents the fundamental goal of a teacher. It can be achieved only by properly choosing teaching methods and forms as well as attaining effective cooperation between teachers and pupils. It is important that teachers knows how to motivate their pupils and prepare them for a good cooperation and cooperative learning. Cooperation includes an interaction between pupils where they discuss the learning content and their ways of learning and thinking, instruct and help each other, solve problems, analyse and design plans. Pupils must systematically gain these skills. In a well-managed teamwork environment, pupils develop important communication skills, build friendships, form their opinions and acquire various skills and values. On the basis of his studies, Slavin (2013) notes that the majority of cooperative learning takes place in an informal manner and does not include team goals nor an individual’s responsibility. Despite the evidence on positive effects of cooperative learning, this teaching strategy remains on the periphery of school practice and is often badly performed. I studiedpair work in detail, as I believe that this form of learning is not applied often enough in school practice and a more frequent and didactically well-planned usage of pair work would contribute importantly to a stronger knowledge of pupils and their adaptation to cooperation. In the empirical part of this research, I wished to discover the aims and goals of teachers who decided to use this form of learning, the frequency of its application and names of subjects where pair work was employed. Furthermore, I was interested in the stage of the learning process where teachers used pair work, their views on the advantages and disadvantages of the aforementioned form of learning and their criteria for pairing up pupils. For the purpose of my research, I prepared a survey questionnaire for teachers and a structured interview for pupils. The research sample consisted of 100 primary teachers and 6 pupils. The acquired results represent a contribution to didactics and improve the education of teachers in this area of interest